


Mathematicians are jerks

by Crystal_E_Fall



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: But he doesn't know it yet, Gen, Light-Hearted, Lots of talk about pizza, Mentioned Bobby | Trevor Wilson, Reggie Peters is good at math, Reggie Peters-centric (Julie and The Phantoms), Why Did I Write This?, because why not, mostly anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 20:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29922684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crystal_E_Fall/pseuds/Crystal_E_Fall
Summary: "Reggie didn't want to be here.Not because of Miss Tyler - in fact, the teaching assistant had seemed nothing but nice the few times she'd visited their class. In any other situation she'd probably be really fun to talk to, but he was here for math tutoring and, frankly, it sucked."-Reggie's relationship with math and how he realises he might not be so bad at it after all.
Relationships: Reggie Peters & Math
Comments: 9
Kudos: 37





	Mathematicians are jerks

_1992_

Reggie didn't want to be here.

Not because of Miss Tyler - in fact, the teaching assistant had seemed nothing but nice the few times she'd visited their class. In any other situation she'd probably be really fun to talk to, but he was here for math tutoring and, frankly, it sucked. Like, if he already didn't get it in class, how was an extra hour a week going to make any difference? Why spend even more time proving he sucked at math when he could be doing fun stuff, like practicing with the band?

Sighing, he leaned back against the corridor wall. Man, Luke, Alex and Bobby were probably in the garage by now, jamming and working on the bridge for _Long weekend_ and having fun, while he was stuck here with nothing but an hour of nodding and pretending to understand to look forward to.

Maybe he should've accepted Alex's offer to stay with him after all?

But no, Alex didn't like math either and it'd be unfair to ask him to stay just for Reggie's sake. Especially when the alternative was playing music with the other guys. Come on, who wouldn't choose music over math?

Well, there was that guy in his class, Chase, who spent the lessons asking the teacher all kinds of complicated questions and the breaks cracking math jokes only he and his senior friends found funny (and understood), but Reggie was pretty sure he was an exception to the rule.

The door to Miss Tyler's office opening brought him out of his thoughts.

"Hi," Miss Tyler said, giving him an apologetic smile. A pencil was tucked behind her ear, nearly covered by her black curls. "Sorry for making you wait. Just needed to answer an email and... a bunch of other teacher stuff you probably don't want to hear about. Come in!"

The room looked pretty much like every other teacher's office at the school - soft green painted walls, a desk cluttered with a computer, papers and folders underneath the only window (the car park outside was pretty much empty now) and an extra group of table and chairs in one corner. Whoever the architect was he must've been pretty bored when he designed the school.

Some personal touches had been added here and there though, like the vase of (plastic) orchids on the window sill, the picture near the computer of Miss Tyler and a cheeky-looking kid in a kayak and, by far the coolest of all, a giant space-themed woven tapestry. The galaxies looked a bit weird though - yellow spirals descended out from them, each spiral section boxed in by increasingly bigger squares.

"Mum made it for me for my fifteenth birthday." Reggie looked over at Miss Tyler, who had sat down at the table. A fond smile crossed her lips as she nodded towards the tapestry. "I was obsessed with the Fibonacci numbers and space. Still am, to the surprise of absolutely no one." How Fibo-what-now numbers related to the tapestry Reggie didn't know, but he quickly forgot about it when she continued, "Are you interested in space?"

Sitting down across from her, Reggie shrugged. "I guess? I mean, I haven't really thought about it, but I love Star Wars, so..."

"No kidding? I _adored_ them as a kid - I practically dragged my mum to the theatre when Return of the Jedi came out."

Reggie smiled, remembering the time he first saw the last movie - Luke had smuggled them into a drive-in theatre. They'd had to hide in a group of bushes the entire time to avoid getting caught, but it had been _so_ worth it.

"My math brain has kinda ruined them for me now though, which sucks," Miss Tyler continued with a wistful sigh. "I just can't seem to switch it off. Don't even get me started on parsecs or I'll be ranting for hours - I won't though, so don't worry."

Reggie couldn't keep in his huge sigh of relief.

"Speaking of math, we should probably get started. I'm guessing you want this over and done with as quickly as possible."

"Yeah, definitely," Reggie said before he could stop himself.

Thankfully, Miss Tyler just chuckled. "What question are you up to?"

Pulling his math book out of his bag, he flipped to the chapter they were currently working with... and paused. Should he lie, say he was further ahead than he was? No, that'd be stupid. Especially when Miss Tyler started explaining and it became clear he had no clue what she was talking about.

His cheeks still heated up though as he pointed to the second question on the page. Gosh, she'd probably think he was so dumb, still on question two when they'd received the homework a whole week earlier.

There was no sign of judgement on her face however as she read aloud, "'You and your four friends are sharing some pizza. If you want a quarter of a pizza and your friends want two thirds each, are three pizzas enough?'" She thought for a moment before turning to Reggie. "Any ideas on where to start?"

"... Honestly, no. I don't even understand the question."

"Okay. What is it that you find confusing?" she asked, not unkindly.

"Everything. Like… I don't know. I can't explain it."

"Try."

Once again, he hesitated. Math teachers usually didn't like his way of reasoning. They always got annoyed. Said he was missing the point. Overthinking it. Messing with them.

But maybe Miss Tyler would be different…?

He cleared his throat. "So, like, the only people I go out for pizza with are Luke, Alex and Bobby - that's three friends, not four. So who's this fourth guy? And how can I know how much pizza we'll eat if I don't know what kind? Like, if it's Hawaii, I'd probably eat one by myself. I don't think I've ever eaten only a quarter of a pizza - unless it's, like, leftovers the day after or something.

"And Alex never eats the crusts and Luke always eats more than he says he wants - he hates leaving food on the plates because then the pizza guys might think we didn't like it, which is sweet but also kinda weird, because the pizza guys already know we like their pizza since we come there all the time and… Anyway, so, like, how can I know they'll eat exactly two thirds each?

"Also, if three pizzas aren't enough and we're still hungry, can't we just buy another one? Together I think we'd have enough money to do it. Unless we're saving up for an amp or something - we're in a band together, by the way. Sunset Curve, tell your friends! - but then why would we be out eating pizza in the first place?

"So, um, yeah," he fiddled with the sleeves of his flannel, mumbling now, "I guess that's a bit what I'm confused about."

Silence settled in the room, so quiet but at the same time so loud it seemed to be screaming at Reggie from all directions. Why wasn't Miss Tyler saying anything? Oh god, he'd said something dumb, hadn't he?

Why, why, _why_ couldn't he be in the studio right now…

"Huh," Miss Tyler finally said. "I've never thought about it that way." She paused again. "How did you find question one? Easy? Difficult?"

What did that have to do with the pizzas? Shrugging, Reggie glanced up at the book. Right. It was those fraction thingies. Those he knew what to do with. "Pretty easy," he said, "I mean, you just take the top numbers times each other and the bottom ones times each other and then plus it with that fraction after making sure the bottom numbers are the same and-" The sight of Miss Tyler's raised eyebrows made him cut his ramble short. "I'm not making sense at all, am I?"

Miss Tyler blinked, before huffing out a little laugh. "No, you probably are, but maybe you could show me your working? To be sure I understood you correctly."

That meant he hadn't made sense at all - she was just too nice to say so. Man, had he done that question wrong too? He'd checked the answers in the back of the book - triple checked even - and they said he was right, but…

Biting his lip, he fished out his notebook and gave it to Miss Tyler. Another too quiet-too loud silence filled the air as she eyed through his notes. Reggie fiddled with his flannel sleeves again. Buttoning and unbuttoning the cuffs over and over. Buttoned. Unbuttoned. Buttoned. Unbuttoned.

"Nice. You worked that out perfectly."

His head snapped up. "Wait, really?"

"Really." She sent him a brief smile, face turning thoughtful as she set the book down. "Alright, I think I know how to help you. But if I don't make sense, tell me. Okay?"

"Okay," he lied. Not to be mean or anything, but because he'd been here before. No matter how much the teachers explained to him, he just couldn't _get it,_ you know?

Not that he didn't want to! It definitely would be cool to get it - maybe then his dad would finally be proud of him - but he'd kind of accepted he wouldn't by now. As Luke usually said when he was in a metaphor mood (a.k.a. all the time): he and math just didn't see eye to eye.

And Miss Tyler had been so friendly so far; he didn't want to annoy her by not understanding.

"Okay," Miss Tyler began, "so, if we completely ignore what the question says for a moment - ignore the pizzas and the friends and everything - what numbers does it mention?"

"Um… four…?" At her encouraging nod, he continued, "a quarter, two thirds… and three."

As he said them she wrote them all down in his notebook. Her handwriting was very neat, all straight lines and angles, even the threes which was a bit weird. Still looked way better than Luke's though.

Then again, everyone's handwriting was better than Luke's.

"Alright. Four, a quarter - or one fourth, as you normally write it - two thirds and three." She circled the numbers, meeting his gaze. "As you can probably guess, the mathematician who wrote the question included these numbers intentionally. But here's the thing: mathematicians are absolute _jerks_ -" she cut herself off as Reggie let out a snort. "What?"

"Nothing, just… you called them jerks."

"Well, they are!" she said, grinning now, "Because, you see, all this about you, your friends and pizza - it's all there to distract you. They want you to think about pizza toppings instead of those numbers. And to mess with you even more, what they've written doesn't even make sense in real life. Because, just like you said, real people can change their minds."

Reggie frowned. "So… they're not asking about pizza at all?"

"Sadly, no. You know what? Let's cross the word 'pizza' out completely." And to Reggie's surprise, she did just that. He'd been told over and over not to draw in his school books and here was a teacher, doing that very thing! "Okay, now, let's try to figure out what the heck they're actually trying to say, huh? Look at the question part again."

She cleared her throat, pointing at the second line of text: _If you want a quarter_ _of a pizza_ _and your friends want two thirds each, are three_ _pizzas_ _enough?_ Once she received a nod from him, she continued, "So, according to the mathematicians, you want a quarter. How many of you are there in the world?"

"One? Unless I was secretly cloned at birth… that'd be rad." The last part came out more like a mumble.

A smile ghosted across her lips. "Okay. But from what we know right now there's only one of you, right? So _one_ wants a quarter." She jotted down 1 * 1/4 in his notebook. "Do you understand what I did there?"

"Yeah." More like no.

"Good. Second part: your friends want two thirds each. How many friends do the mathematicians think you have?"

"Four."

"Exactly. So four want two thirds." Next to the previous numbers, she wrote 4 * 2/3. "Now, have we used all the numbers we put down earlier? The ones in the circle."

"No..." Reggie pointed to the three and she scribbled it down next to the others. Where was she even going with this?

"Uh huh. So," she drew a line under the new numbers, "when they ask you 'If you want a quarter of a pizza and your friends want two thirds each, are three pizzas enough?' they're _actually_ asking, 'If you have 1 * 1/4 and 4 * 2/3, is that less than 3?'" A crinkle appeared between her eyebrows. "Does that make sense? It feels like it made more sense in my head-"

"Wait… so they want me to find out if…" Reggie drew his own pencil out and wrote (far less neatly) underneath her numbers: 1 * 1/4 + 4 * 2/3 < 3?

"Yes! Exactly!"

"Oh. _Oh!_ But that's basically the same as question one! I just need to…" Heart rate speeding up a little, he quickly splashed the calculations down on the page before circling the answer. "2 and 11/12! And that's less than 3, so that means the answer is... yes?"

Miss Tyler's beaming smile was all the answer he needed and a rush travelled through him - not unlike the ones he felt after getting off stage after a killer gig. Because he'd actually done it, he'd actually… actually understood for _real!_

"Nicely done," she said. "Okay, so to recap, what did we do to get the answer?"

"Um…" It took a second to remember - thinking was always hard when he was excited, "We looked for all the numbers they mentioned."

"Right. Is it okay if I...?" She pointed at the cardboard back page of his notebook. When he nodded, she wrote: _Step 1: Locate all numbers and write them down._ "Then?"

"Then… then we - I mean you - crossed out pizza."

Miss Tyler grinned. "Step 2: Remember the mathematicians are jerks and trying to trick you."

"Then we added the three… no wait, first we changed me and my friends into numbers..."

"Uh huh. Step 3: Try to write the question with numbers instead of words."

"... And now came the three..."

"Step 4: Make sure all relevant numbers are included."

"And then some counting and _boom…_ answer!"

She laughed. "Yeah, I don't think you need any specific instructions there - you seem to have the counting part nailed down. So Step 5: Count!" Adding a little smiley face at the end, she slid the notebook back over to him. "There ya have it," she said. "You won't be allowed to have this with you on the test, of course, but it might help a bit now while you're practicing."

"More like a lot." Reggie glanced from the list to her and back again. It… it looked so simple, spelled out like this. But, most exhilarating of all, it actually kind of, sort of, mostly made sense to him.

Maybe - he hardly dared to think it - maybe he could actually _pass math_ this year?

His grin was wide as he looked back up at her. "I think you literally just saved my life."

She shook her head, but returned the expression nonetheless. "Not sure that's true, but I'll take it. Wanna try the next question?"

:::

"How did it go?" Alex asked as Reggie bounced into the studio an hour later.

"Lemme guess," Luke added, "mind-numbingly boring?"

Reggie beamed at them. "Actually, no! Miss Tyler's really nice and I learnt a ton of stuff."

"Really?" Alex sat up on the couch. "Like what?"

"Oh, you know, that mathematicians are jerks and don't care about pizza toppings or how many friends you have. Which may seem rude, but it's really not - they're just trying to distract you from the secret numbers."

Luke and Alex shared a look, before saying in unison, "Okay, Reggie."

:::

(Reggie didn't just pass his next math test)

(He actually got a C+)

(Which he and the boys celebrated with pizza)

(And they _all_ ate more than two thirds each)

(Suck it, mathematicians)

**Author's Note:**

> So I absolutely love the headcanon that Reggie is actually great at math. I don't know, it just... fits so well for some reason?
> 
> I feel like there'd be some parts of math he'd struggle with though (at least at first). Like connecting the numbers and equations to reality through real life examples. Overall, I just get the feeling he's quite a literal person (I'm thinking about the "deep dish" scene in particular) and on top of being easily distracted, I feel like the real life examples would come off pretty confusing to him - before he knows how to "convert" them into numbers, that is. And since math on the harder levels is pretty much all real life examples and such, his genius wouldn't be visible in his grade - which would definitely suck!
> 
> And so... this fic was born. Why is it 2700 words long? Why did I even write it? I honestly don't know, more than that it was surprisingly fun to make lol
> 
> I'm thinking of maybe adding more to this, exploring Alex's, Luke's and Julie's relationships with math too, but I don't know, is it something you guys would be interested in? Otherwise I'll not post and just write it for my math nerd self later on at some point :)


End file.
